Are the parallels between Jesus and previous resurrection stories purely coincidental?

Question

A very aggravated user answered my last question - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070118152507AAXT69n&cp=2 - by, among other things, suggesting that numerous similarities between the story of Christ's resurrection and other resurrection stories (such as Osiris, Mithra or Attis which precede the story of Christ) were inconsequential and coincidental.

Is that so?

Please answer with more than a "yes" or "no".

Answer 1

I don't think they were coincidental, rather, I believe they point to Christ, and emphasize that this is an important idea taught in many cultures that deserves some attention.

Also, the idea of Christ-like stories appearing long before the birth of Christ is something very normal to most Christians - I mean, the Old Testament alone is full of them.

Answer 2

I don't think it requires any "response"... but we should alll be aware of the basic facts. Jesus was a unique individual with a particular personal history. However, after his death, others, seeking to create a religion around him, made use of many popular Pagan beliefs to make the worship of Jesus more attractive to new converts. For example a few things about Jesus were taken from the worship of Attis... Attis was born on winter solstice, died on spring equinox, and was resurected from the dead after 3 days. His symbol was the pine tree... thus we have Christmas, Christmas trees, Easter, the resurection, etc. So all the celebrations for Attis could remain the same, and people would just replace him with Jesus. There are many more parallels if you'de care to do some research and read about them. But of course they don't really shed any light on who Jesus was as a person. They are just examples of some of the methods others used to promote and facilitate his worship, centuries after his death. Best wishes, Jeanie

Answer 3

My personal opinion of why there are so many paralells is because God was telling the Jews back then about the coming Messiah through Prophets, so He was likely telling the Gentiles (of various nations) also. The Jews, spoke of the events as future, the Gentiles spoke as though it was happening then or in the past. This would explain why the telling of such stories stopped when Christ came.

You might remember in Acts, Paul used a statue to "An Unknown God" in giving his message about Jesus. The people listened, perhapse they thought "Ohhh this is what the story was about?!"

The story of Mithra is almost identical to Jesus' story, the virgin birth, being "the lamb" suffering for sins, ressurrecting etc...All these things were told to the Jews before Jesus came also, so I believe that God told the Greeks and Romans and other cultures too... just they told the prophecies differently.

Answer 4

First why didn't you give a link so people could read about these stories?

I have heard of many of the ressurected stories. First many of these stories have never been claimed as an actual historical earthly event. Also, Jesus is the only ressurection to that point that he would NEVER die again. Most other ressurections resulted in that person dying again eventually.

I would be curious on the timing of these stories and how much they parallel. Perhpas maybe the writers of the gospel wanted to parallel these "stories" to tell about an actual ressurection. So they were being culturally relevant. However, I do not think these stories came out of the intertestemental period and therefore this would not be the scenario.

Answer 5

It's not at all coincidental. Religions have been borrowing stories from each other for millenia. Many mythological figures are based on the mythological figures that came before them. I don't think Christianity has done it any more than any other religion; it's just that their myths are so familiar to us that we can easily see when they've borrowed material.

And it doesn't end with Jesus, either. Look at the modern stories that borrow from the Jesus myth - The Matrix and Superman are two obvious examples. We're just continuing the tradition.

Answer 6

I can simply answer this, No. There. But i must say, i love people who can offer no other valid argument than quoting the bible. Do they not understand that quoting the bible is the LEAST EFFECTIVE form of argument against an atheist? Im going ot tell you what a book you don;t believe in says about a God you don't accept in a religion you don' recognize. Yah. Makes sense to me. Their is a very good reason the died and came back to life story is so popular. It obviously works. That is why. People love that stuff and eat it up.

Answer 7

Oh I believe that Jesus could have been a real person. But after his death (perhaps before even) his followers took some of the other local mythologies and attributed them to him. You see the same thing in some more modern folklore stories even. Maybe they weren't intentionally stealing, brainwashing or running a con job as some say but more in a, well, my savior can do that to type thing, and better.

Answer 8

No, I don't think it is coincidental. I think Adam was taught from the beginning what the plan was including resurrection from the dead and in particular that Christ would be the first and because of him all others would be resurrected. I think subsequent generations had some form of this, although not in pure form, to retell.

Answer 9

I believe that the story of the resurrection of Christ has been with mankind since Adam and Eve. God does not leave his children in the dark, he told them what would be happening. There are tons of revelations in the Old Testament concerning Christ's mission here on Earth. So, why isn't it believable that these stories traveled with the descendants of Adam and Eve and were twisted by those that lost the truth or chose not to follow God?

Answer 10

Nearly all religions plagerize each other, simply look at the three major religions of the world, Jewish, Christian, Islam. They share nearly all the same motives, themes and players, the only signifigant difference is in interpretation.
They were all based on earlier middle eastern traditions, typically remnants of the various major regional empires, Persion, Egyptian, Hellene, Roman, etc.